What I did on my summer vacation

[DMF]

I started my retaining wall project last week while I was on vacation. It’s approx. 60 feet long and will be close to 7’ high on the high end. I don’t have a shot of the bare trench; here it is with the drain pipe installed and (at least) 6” of ¾ stone in the bottom.

 

[DMF]

First layer of blocks going in. Took forever to level these front to back and side to side!

 

[DMF]

Here the second layer is down and backfilled. I also show a layer of geo-grid going onto this layer. I put this down on layer 2 (as shown), two courses above that, then every third course afterward.

 

[DMF]

This photo shows the 5th course laid out.

 

[DMF]

A slightly different angle:

 

[DMF]

This shows the 7th course laid out, back filled and another layer of geo-grid (the third) laid out. The 55 gallon drum is going to be the footing for my flagpole (next year’s project). When the wall is done, the drum should be buried.

 

[DMF]

Have to get some tractor pictures in here! In this one I’m using “Fergy” to move the blocks. I can fit 10 in the bucket if I stack them right. It certainly beats carrying them. My wife helped one day when my sister-in-law watched the baby. My wife kept complaining that the blocks were heavy; “26 pounds” I kept telling her. “No way” she said, “the baby weighs more than that and she’s not this heavy”. Later on as I looked up the info on the geo-grid spacing I check the spec’s on the blocks; oops, 65 pounds! I knew there was a “6” in there somewhere!
/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[DMF]

Here’s a shot of me backfilling with my dump wagon. I was lucky enough that my neighbor down the road a short ways is putting in a French drain (actually, I am doing the install and fill work) and he had a bunch of material that came out of the trench that he didn’t need so I scoffed it for backfill. I figured I hauled 10 yards on Sunday. A couple of things I noticed:
1. I can back a trailer with the best of them. A four-wheel wagon does not back up easily and/or I completely suck at backing a wagon up!
2. The canopy on Fergy extends only so far and if you work in the sun driving her around wearing shorts the top of your thighs will get burned without sunscreen!
3. My quick-disconnects are anything but (see my rear hydraulics thread on the Massey-Ferguson forum).

 

[DMF]

I now have about 3 courses left to go (sorry no photo). I have dug an area for my walkway to break through and laid that course down as well. I hope to have more pictures tomorrow.

 

[gmsssi]

Nice work, when you wanna do mine!